Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 372: War for Three Months [Subscribe for monthly tickets]

The first year of Chengtai occupies a relatively important position in history and is also recorded in detail in history books.

In particular, the historical event of the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" can be said to be one of the most important events in the entire ancient history of China. In some books discussing philosophy and politics, it is even called the "red spark."

It is generally believed that in this year, the Yellow Turban Army led by Zhang Jue was the first real "peasant uprising army" in history, and it is said that this uprising marked the awakening of peasants' thoughts.

This was also the first time in history that peasants brazenly launched a war for their own "lives", but it was definitely not the first time.

This is a precedent and a first.

It's inheritance.

All in all, this war is listed as one of the most important wars in history.

Of course, such a status is not only due to "Zhang Jue" and the peasant uprising. More importantly, this peasant uprising, in the end, was no longer just a war launched for survival.

It has a certain "sacredness" to a certain extent.

China's ancient history is a very long history, and people can always dig out a lot of information from it.

In ancient Chinese history, there were a total of five wars recorded in history books and known as "bloody fields". The cruelty, significance, and even sacredness of these five wars were extremely significant.

First, the battle of Gangyu.

The victory in the Battle of Gangyu announced that the Chinese land was about to enter the "era of great unification". It also heralded the complete rise of the Qin State and its becoming an unstoppable overlord. This war was an important condition for the unification of Qin.

It was this war that announced that no one in the Central Plains could stop the Qin State.

Second, the Battle of Broken Jade.

The Battle of Suiyu cannot actually be called a war. People in later generations usually refer to the "War of Qin and Yan" and the "War of Qin and Han" as the Battle of Suiyu. These two battles are very similar. Both are wars to defend one's own country, and both are fights to the death.

The former almost wiped out the "Mohist School", one of the three most popular schools of thought at the time, while the latter destroyed the Qin Empire.

The "justice" contained in these two wars was also promoted by later generations.

There is never right or wrong in war, only differences in interests and positions.

The third was a war that broke out in the later period of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Named
"The Battle of Heaven".

The Battle of Fatian was even more brutal, with even more deaths than the previous two battles. Countless people turned into a sea of ​​blood. Even some people in later generations sighed after counting the lives of the new general in the Yellow Turban Army who succeeded the "Great Sage Master" as "General Tiangong".

The man has even more blood on his hands than the "human butcher" Bai Qi back then.

This is extremely rare in Chinese history.

And at this point, all this has not happened yet.

After Zhang Jue's uprising, the war quickly swept across the world. Many people who were equally unbearable and those ambitious people hiding in the dark began to stir. After many attempts, these people officially stood up.

For example, Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, Sun Quan of Jiangdong, and Liu Biao of Jingzhou.
Everyone is quickly trying to gather their own forces, and everyone is working hard to develop themselves. They have only one goal, which is to be in the high position in Chang'an City.

There is no one who doesn't want to be the emperor.

Everyone is thinking about one question.

Liu has already lost her destiny, so why can't I become this person in her place?

Of course, these ambitious people will also be afraid.

The first person they feared was Chen.

The second fear was the prophecy of Emperor Gaozu, who had made the "Golden Sword Alliance" with the Chen family.

In the past, Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, but in the end, wasn't he still defeated by the Liu family and the Chen family? Even though Wang Mang had established a brand new dynasty, it was still the Liu family that finally restored the Han Dynasty!
even
Everyone has seen the final battle between Emperor Guangwu and Wang Mang. A meteorite fell from the sky and crushed all of Wang Mang's powerful forces to death.
Is it possible for ordinary people to do such a thing?
Did Liu's destiny really disappear completely?

Will this situation happen again?
If it really happens, who can withstand it?
Questions one after another appeared in their minds, so these people never dared to come forward to truly "secede". But when Zhang Jue launched the Yellow Turban Rebellion, everyone saw everything clearly.

"The Han Dynasty has run out of luck."

This sentence is no longer an empty talk, but has become a reality.

So, these ambitious people began to emerge one by one.

Sitting in the Guanfeng Pavilion, Chen Zhulou threw the bait in his hand into the pond. Then he turned around and looked at the sturdy man standing next to him with some helplessness.

"General Dong, I have no ambition to dominate. What's the point of you joining me?"

Dong Zhuo just smiled innocently. The middle-aged scholar beside him smiled and said what he thought: "Your Highness does not have any ambition to dominate the world, but Your Highness wants to find a way out for the people of this world, and also wants to end this war as soon as possible, right?"

There was a gentle smile in his tone, and he said with certainty: "If Xu is not wrong, the prince should also consider Chen."

"Then your best option is to fake your death."

"When Chen Zhulou dies, you will be born with another identity, and then go to the Yellow Turban Army to help this group of people who truly represent the people of the world to establish their own power, and even establish a grand dynasty again."

Jia Xu's voice was full of admiration and respect. He just looked at Chen Zhulou, who was standing there, but his aura was already starting to get scary, and said, "I don't have any other requests from the general or Xiliang."

"I just hope that after the new dynasty is established, Xiliang will no longer be discriminated against. I hope that Xiliang will truly become one of the nine states in the world and a part of the new dynasty, rather than being a 'border barbarian' that is looked down upon by others."

What Jia Xu said was very sincere.

Dong Zhuo also echoed at this time: "Yes, Your Majesty, we have no other wishes, but we don't want to be barbarians anymore."

He sighed deeply: "The people of Liangzhou are also the people of the Han Dynasty. However, the actions of the Han Dynasty's high-ranking officials and those powerful people over the years have broken the hearts of the people of Liangzhou."

"Since the chaotic times have come, the Han Dynasty is in decline, and a new dynasty is about to come, Zhuo also wants to risk his life for the hundreds of thousands of young men in Xiliang."

"Alas..." Chen Zhulou sighed deeply. He turned around, looked at Dong Zhuo and Jia Xu and said, "Well."

"Then you can stay."

He threw the bait in his hand into the pond, and immediately countless fish began to jump and scramble for it.

After all, Chen Zhulou is a member of the Chen family. Even if the Chen family does not care about the so-called reputation of a noble family, he still needs to plan for the continuation of the Chen family when possible.

The Chen family has existed for five hundred years, so what's the point of planning for the Chen family for another five hundred years?
Chen can fight hard for the people of the world, but it is human nature to seek some benefits for himself while fighting hard for the people.

The second year of Chengtai was also the second year after Zhang Jue’s uprising.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion was fierce, and the Han Dynasty's control over various places was indeed somewhat weak, so the rebels quickly occupied many places.

Today, the world is divided into three major forces, with some small forces in between.

The Western Regions Protectorate, Liangzhou, Youzhou and Jingzhou were separated. The Western Regions Protectorate was under the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Protectorate as before. The Western Regions Protectorate had been almost an independent region since the fourth emperor after the establishment of the New Han Dynasty, but they had always been under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty.

With the help of this foreign exchange settlement, the Protectorate of the Western Regions had planned to completely break away from the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty and establish its own government. However, a letter from Guandu City calmed the Protectorate of the Western Regions down.

There were only a few simple words in the letter.

"Don't move, or you'll die."

These five words flew all the way from Guandu City to the Protector General of the Western Regions, directly overturning all of the Protector General's plans.

He knew that Chen had the ability to do so.

Once Chen really takes action, all forces in the world will follow Chen and eliminate him, the real traitor, first.

why?

Because at this time, the areas belonging to the "Protectorate of the Western Regions" of the Han Dynasty were not only those places mentioned in the original version. Some Central Asian countries, or most of the Central Asian countries in Chen's version, were under the jurisdiction of the "Protectorate of the Western Regions".

Therefore, in the eyes of these people in the Han Dynasty, their secession of the Nine Provinces is their "own business", and if you, the Protectorate of the Western Regions, want to split, it means that the barbarians want to split the Nine Provinces.

The land of Kyushu can change an emperor, but it can never tolerate barbarians splitting off the land that originally belonged to Kyushu.

Even the Liu clan would have to hold their noses and tolerate "Cao thief" and others at this time, and then cooperate sincerely, and under the guidance of Chen, directly destroy the troops of the Western Regions Protectorate, and then temporarily hand over the Western Regions to Chen for jurisdiction. When the outcome is decided one day, they will take over the Western Regions Protectorate from Chen.

As for Liangzhou, because it was adjacent to the Protectorate of the Western Regions, it was also always considered as "border barbarians". However, there was one difference between Xiliang and the Protectorate of the Western Regions. That is, although "Xiliang" were barbarians, they were "border barbarians" and of the same nature as Youzhou, and they were their own people.

Therefore, neither Cao Cao nor Liu Bei had much interest in Liangzhou and Youzhou for the time being.

The temporary separatism of these two places is only temporary. Once they have dealt with each other and the "Yellow Turban Army" that suddenly emerged, these two places will naturally surrender.

Therefore, they did not particularly care about Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, Dong Zhuo who secretly controlled Liangzhou, and even Liu Biao of Jingzhou.

There are big men on both sides.

In other words, it’s not that they don’t want to care, but that they don’t have the means to care for the time being.

After Zhang Jue's uprising, he quickly took control of many counties.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei were not to be outdone. They quickly took control of their own forces and began to swallow up the remaining "small forces".

The forces such as "Ma Teng" who escaped from Xiliang and were entrenched in Wuwei and Beidi were recovered by Liu Bei, while the alliances of Jiangdong Sun and Lu who were entrenched in Yangzhou were driven to Jiaozhou by Cao Cao to survive.

By the third year of Chengtai, the situation in the world had become very clear.

Dong Zhuo occupied Liang Province, but did not seem to want to get involved in this "struggle for destiny". Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, after driving away the royal family Liu Yu, occupied Youzhou by himself. He was more ambitious than Dong Zhuo and wanted to go south through Youzhou and occupy the world.

Although Liu Biao of Jingzhou was powerful, he was no match for the "Yellow Turban Army" controlled by Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Zhang Jue, so Jingzhou was eaten up by more than one third and almost half of its territory was lost.

Jiaozhou, also known as Jiaozhi and the land of Baiyue, was occupied by the dying Sun Jian.

The battle between Cao Cao and Sun Quan ended very quickly. Before Sun Jian could even react, Cao Cao led his troops to capture most of Yangzhou and even ruthlessly cleansed the local "aristocratic families".

The Lu and Lu families fled to Jiaozhou with the Sun family of Jiangdong and occupied this not-so-large territory.

The world is indeed divided into three parts.

The "Liu Han" forces headed by Liu Min, the emperor of the Liu Han royal family, or in other words, headed by the emperor's uncle Liu Bei, occupied "Bingzhou", "Shuofangzhou", "Zuoyoufufeng", "Silizhou", part of Yizhou, and part of Jingzhou.

The "Cao Han" forces headed by the emperor of the Liu Han royal family "Liu Xie", or the prime minister of the Han Dynasty Cao Cao, occupied "Jizhou", "Yanzhou", "Qingzhou", "Xuzhou", "Yangzhou" and part of Jingzhou.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jue spread everywhere, but the most important separatist forces occupied part of "Yizhou", part of Jingzhou, part of Liangzhou, part of Shuofangzhou and part of Yangzhou.

As a result, Zhang Jue's Yellow Turban Army occupied the western and southern parts of the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty, while Liu Bei occupied the central and extended part, and Cao Cao occupied the coastal areas in the north and south.

The formation of the iconic three-way confrontation was the battle among the three to divide Jingzhou.

Of course, Jingzhou was still governed by Liu Biao at this time. Even though the three parties divided a part of Jingzhou, Jingzhou was still mostly controlled by Liu Biao.

Everyone knows that neither Zhang Jue nor Liu Bei nor Cao Cao will tolerate Liu Biao of Jingzhou continuing to occupy such a huge piece of "fat meat". The three of them will definitely completely divide up Liu Biao's power at some point.

What no one expected was that this opportunity came so quickly.

The third year of Chengtai, winter.

Changan
Ma Chao was walking hurriedly towards the Prime Minister's Residence with a letter in his hand. There was an excitement on his face. Even when he saw the man named "Wei Yan" passing by, whom he hated, it did not dampen his mood in the slightest.

He rushed into the Prime Minister's Office and looked at the busy eunuchs in the Prime Minister's Office. Zhuge Liang said, "Eunuch Zhuge, where is the Prime Minister? Where is the Prime Minister?"

"The spies in Jingzhou sent news that Liu Biao might not survive this winter!"

(End of this chapter)